Thumbnail Previews - Bring them back!!!
Does Expensify have any plans to bring the thumbnail previews back? One of the benefits to using Expensify is that it automates the process so I don't have to click on every single expense, only those that are flagged. (I process 3,000 to 4,000 each week.)
To ensure they submit actual receipts, I just scrolled to the bottom and did a quick scan. Now I have to click on every single expense. You just increased my processing time substantially.
Please bring back the thumbnail previews!!!
Comments
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Hi @acctsupport - I can see that you've written into Concierge about this and commented elsewhere in the Community. We've noted your feedback and passed it along to our engineers. We'll get back to you via Concierge when we have an update.
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Is there an update on this? Not having the previews make is exponentially more difficult, especially sense the reason it was removed was to make it "simpler"....
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Cheryl Walsh Expensify Success Coach - Admin, Expensify Team, Expensify Student Ambassador Posts: 107 Expensify TeamHi @random_user thanks for reaching out again! You've provided super feedback regarding the recent report changes and we have brought all of your feedback to the team. I can confirm that receipt thumbnails as a feature has been removed permanently. You can still view receipt images by clicking on them from within a report. Once you open an expense, you can quickly click through others in the report using the < > arrows at the top of the expense or the arrows on your keyboard. Alternately, you can download the report to PDF to see all of the receipt thumbnails.
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This still takes way more time and effort. Especially when you have a large amount of receipts to verify and multiple reports to download..... also using the <> doesn't even show the whole picture so then you have to hover around and find the cost or dates on each picture. Once again , doing this 100's of times is a waste.
Edit: I should clarify that I use mobile almost exclusively.
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Can I please 2nd this request. I work for a large company that has hundreds of expenses each month and unfortunatley not all staff have the same understanding of Accounting standards and audit requirements that we do. So sometimes we get examples like below. The staff member has uploaded a hand written note with no further detail yet this was not flagged for review.
Without the thumbnails, I now need to click through each individual expense. How does this meet your customers needs of improved efficancey?
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@Amy_Fogarty071020 I'm curious - do you have the "Receipt Required Amount" rule on for your policies? Are employees just circumventing this rule by adding inadequate receipt proof? Are the majority of your employee expenses cash or card expenses?
Ultimately we want everyone to spend as little time as possible micromanaging each report and its expenses, and to let the system do the work for you. In the example listed above I can see this particular receipt is for $5. Do you have specific laws that require receipts for every single expense to that level? The reason I ask is that it might be worth challenging the value of needing a receipt at this level - especially if you can have it backed by a corporate card receipt instead.
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@Lauren Reid We have the same issue has Amy_Forgarty.
We will have someone hand write a receipt for over $500 and Expensify will not flag it. As long as they write the date and total, it is not flagged and regardless of what state you work in, a receipt would be required for anything over $500.
There's just no way around what you're saying. We MUST see the receipts and being able to scroll through the thumbnails saved us SO much time. We need them back.
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@acctsupport are you based in the states? are the majority the expenses this applies to cash or card expenses?
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@Lauren Reid Yes, we are in the states. Most of the expenses submitted are paid via a credit card. NOT a company card.
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Cortney Ofstad Expensify Success Coach - Admin, Expensify Team, Expensify Student Ambassador Posts: 173 Expensify TeamThanks for clarifying @acctsupport and I've passed this additional information along to our team.
I appreciate you taking the time to reach out about this, and I apologize for any hassle that this has caused!
If you have any other questions or need anything else, please let me know.
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@acctsupport have you considered using the Expensify Card at all? The reason I ask is that this would allow you to 1) have guaranteed e-receipts for all transactions under $75 (which is the IRS limit) and 2) not need to directly reimburse any employees for out of pocket expenses. It's completely free. Just a thought :)
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@Lauren Reid We absolutely will NOT use the Expensify card.
It would create far more problems for us than solutions.
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@acctsupport what problems do you perceive it would cause?
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Are you kidding me?
I'm not going into detail about what all the could entail. We have just under 500 employees who submit expense reports. They all use funds from different accounts. They all have different reimbursement requirements.
In the words of our CFO, "this would be an absolute accounting nightmare."
However, I am starting to wonder if this was a move to push us towards the Expensify card. (Which won't happen.)
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@acctsupport I think that both yourself and @Amy_Fogarty071020 would be pleased to hear about Concierge Audit that is provided for all users on Control plans.
Concierge Audit checks every receipt for accuracy and compliance, flagging any expenses that seem fishy before expense reports are even submitted for approval. All risky expenses are highlighted for manual review, leaving you with more control over and visibility into employee expenses. When a report is submitted and there are risky expenses on it, you will be immediately prompted to review the risky expenses and determine the next steps.
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@Lauren Reid This sounds like what we already have. Expenses are flagged for a variety of reasons but Expensify does not catch everything.
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@acctsupport if you write into [email protected] and reference this conversation, I'm happy to look into any issues where you feel that expenses slipped through the net. I'd love to get you comfy with trusting the system and getting your team precious time back.
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@Lauren Reid We have expenses 'slip through the net' daily. We can not trust the system to check all the required details. Nor can I send a message to the concierge every time one falls through the cracks.
If you want to help get some of our time back, put the receipt thumbnails back where they were.
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Yes please! I was literally asking about this yesteday. Having to click in every single expense to see the receipt is very inconvenient. Reviewing expenses has become a much more tedious task now that this feature has been removed.
Bring them back. Please, please, please!
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Ted Harris Expensify Success Coach - Admin, Expensify Team, Expensify Student Ambassador Posts: 359 Expensify TeamIf you want to help get some of our time back, put the receipt thumbnails back where they were.
One thing you could do is export the report to a PDF. The thumbnails do still exist there.
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@Ted Harris I realize they can still be viewed by downloading the report as a pdf. There are two issues with this.
1 - It clearly takes longer to download a pdf than to scroll down to the bottom of the report in Expensify.
2 - If you download the report as a pdf, then need to review an expense based on the receipt that you see, you have to go back to the report in Expensify and search for the expense. When the thumbnails were at the bottom (before they were removed), if I needed to see the details, all I had to do was click on the thumbnail I was viewing and the details of the expense were displayed. This obviously takes more time.
I know there are more ways to view the thumbnails. The issue is that you all are moving in the wrong direction. While we can still view them, it takes us much longer to do so. And since the purpose of using Expensify is to streamline the process of expense reimbursement, why would you make changes that go against that goal, causing the process to be more tedious and time consuming?
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Ted Harris Expensify Success Coach - Admin, Expensify Team, Expensify Student Ambassador Posts: 359 Expensify Team
Of course, I just thought I'd state something that hadn't been stated yet @acctsupport in case you were unaware.
One other thing to note is that this appears to really only be affecting a very few - just five here on this thread and I can speak from our internal teams that the requests to Concierge have been just as minimal so I think the core for us to get to is why you think so many are "slipping through the net" where the rest of our customer base are happy to trust the system, from small businesses up to enterprise size.
What I think we need to get to grips with if you'll let us is the times you see things that the system misses. Our Guided Review should be flagging anything that needs review - not the "receipt thumbnails" and if that's incorrect, we should fix that - not adding thumbnails back so you can take a cursory glance at everything instead of a detailed look at the things which need to be reviewed.
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@Ted Harris Are you aware that if a user adds a handwritten receipt, it is not flagged for review?
Someone can literally take a napkin, write the date, amount, and a business name and it will not be flagged because the information matches the details of the expense in Expensify.
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@acctsupport that isn't accurate. As I explained before, for customers on Control plans, Concierge Audit does flag these expenses. If you have an instance where this hasn't been flagged, we are happy to look into that for you. Because this is a public thread, it is not appropriate for us to look into specific examples, but the team is happy to continue that with you via [email protected]
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@LaurenR_Expensify @Ted Harris It didn't take me long to find an example. I have reached out to concierge about this one and their response is below. THIS is why we can't trust the system and not view the thumbnails.
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Okay great - let's continue this conversation there @acctsupport 👍🏽
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I have sent in two examples. And as you can see below, there's quite a bit of contradiction.
1st example:
2nd example:
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@Ted Harris I agree with you that thumbnails are not needed if the guided review flagged hand written notes. What I'm seeing from this thread is that hand written notes are not currently flagged becuase of how tips work in the US. Would it be possible to change this so they are being flagged.
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Ted Harris Expensify Success Coach - Admin, Expensify Team, Expensify Student Ambassador Posts: 359 Expensify Team
hand written notes are not currently flagged because of how tips work in the US.
We'll make sure Concierge Receipt Audit always checks the total + tip amount, and if that matches we won't flag the receipts.
If the receipt is just manually created completely though, we will start flagging it. I'd encourage you to reach out to Concierge if you see any handwritten notes you think should be flagged which are not flagged on Control policies now.
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UPDATE: I am still sending in screenshots to Concierge when we have receipts not flagged that should have been. It's rather tedious because I have to start from the beginning each time to explain why I'm sending them the screenshot.
I am told that handwritten receipts should now be flagged. I have not seen one yet so hopefully this is resolved. However, I am still seeing credit card screenshots, partial receipts, and even Venmo screenshots, none of which are acceptable and they are still not being flagged.
So, I would STILL like to see the thumbnails return until SmartScan works as it should.
